a thing devoted to God. Nor, indeed, was Herodotus of Halicarnassus unac quainted with our nation, but mentions it after a way of his own, when he saith thus, in the second book concerning the Colchians. His words are these:"The only people who were circumcised in their privy members originally, were the Colchians, the Egyptians, and the Ethiopians; but the Phoenicians, and those Syrians that are in Palestine, confess that they learned it from the Egyptians. And for those Syrians who live about the rivers Thermodon and Parthenius, and their neighbours the Macrones, they say they have lately learned it from the Colchians; for these are the only people that are circumcised among mankind, and appear to have done the very same thing with the Egyptians. But as for the Egyptians and Ethiopians themselves, I am not able to say which of them received it from the other." This, therefore, is what Herodotus says, that "the Syrians that are in Palestine are circumcised." But there are no in. habitants of Palestine that are circumcised excepting the Jews; and, therefore, it must be his knowledge of them that enabled him to speak so much concerning them. Cherilus* also, a still ancienter writer, and a poet, makes mention of our nation, and informs us that it came to the assistance of King Xerxes in his expe dition against Greece. For, in his enumeration of all those nations, he last of all, inserts ours among the rest, when he says,-" At the last there passed over 3 people wonderful to be beheld; for they spake the Phoenician tongue with their mouths; they dwelt in the Solymean mountains near a broad lake: their heads were sooty; they had round rasures on them; their heads and faces were like nasty horse heads also, that had been hardened in the smoke."

I think, therefore, that it is evident to every body, that Cherilus means us, be cause the Solymean mountains are in our country, wherein we inhabit, as is also the lake called Asphaltitis; for this is a broader and larger lake than any other that is in Syria and thus does Cherilus make mention of us. But now, that no only the lowest sort of the Grecians, but those that are had in the greatest admi ration for their philosophic improvements among them, did not only know the Jews, but when they lighted upon any of them admired them also, it is easy for any one to know. For Clearchus, who was the scholar of Aristotle, and inferior to no one of the Peripatetics whomsoever, in his first book concerning sleep says,——“ "That Aristotle his master related what follows of a Jew," and sets down Aristotle's own discourse with him. The account is this, as written down by him :-"Now for a great part of what this Jew said, it would be too long to recite it; but what includes in it both wonder and philosophy, it may not be amiss to discourse of. Now, that I may be plain with thee, Hyperochides, I shall herein seem to thee to relate wonders, and what will resemble dreams themselves. Hereupon Hyperochides answered modestly, and said, for that very reason it is * Whether these verses of Cherilus, the heathen poet, in the days of Xerxes, belong to the Solymi in Pisidia, that were near a small lake, or to the Jews that dwelt on the Solymean or Jerusalem mountains, near the great and broad lake Asphaltitis, that were a strange people, and spake the Phoenician tongue, is not agreed on by the learned. It is yet certain that Josephus here, and Eusebius, Præp. ix. 9, p. 412, took them to be Jews, and I confess I cannot but very much incline to the same opinion. The other Solymi were not a strange people, but heathen idolators, like the other part of Xerxes's army; and that thes spake the Phoenician tongue is next to impossible, as the Jews certainly did; nor is there the least evi dence for it elsewhere. Nor was the lake adjoining to the mountains of the Selymi at all large or brea in comparison of the Jewish lake Asphaltitis: nor, indeed, were these so considerable a people as the Jews, nor so likely to be desired by Xerxes for his army as the Jews, to whom he was always very fa vourable. As for the rest of Cherilus's description, that their heads were sooly; that they had round ra sures on their heads: that their heads and faces were like nasty horse heads, which had been hardened in the smoke; these awkward characters probably fitted the Solymi of Pisidia no better than they did the ews in Judea. And, indeed, this reproachful language here given these people, is to me a strong indi cation that they were the poor despicable Jews, and not the Pisidian Solyini celebrated in Homer whom Cherilus here describes; nor are we to expect that either Cherilus or Hecateus, or any other Pagan writers cited by Josephus and Eusebius, made no mistakes in the Jewish history. If, by comparing their testi monies with the more authentic record of that nation, we find them, for the main, to confirm the same, as we always do, we ought to be satisfied, and not expect that they ever had an exact knowledge of a the circumstances of the Jewish affairs, which, indeed, it was almost always impossible for them to lare See sect. 23.

that all of us are very desirous of hearing what thou art going to say. Then, replied Aristotle, for this cause it will be the best way to imitate that rule of the rhetoricians, which requires us first to give an account of the man, and of what nation he was, that so we may not contradict our master's directions. Then said Hyperochides, go on, if it so pleases thee. This man, then, [answered Aristotle,] was by birth a Jew, and came from Celesyria; these Jews are derived from the Indian philosophers; they are named by the Indians Calami, and by the Syrians Judæi, and took their name from the country they inhabit, which is called Judea but for the name of their city, it is a very awkward one, for they call it Jerusalem. Now this man, when he was hospitably treated by a great many, came down from the upper country to the places near the sea, and became a Grecian not only in his language. but in his soul also: insomuch that when we ourselves happened to be in Asia about the same places whither he came, he conversed with us, and with other philosophical persons, and made a trial of our skill in philosophy; and as he had lived with many learned men, he communicated to us more information than he received from us." This is Aristotle's account of the matter, as given us by Clearchus; which Aristotle discoursed also particularly of the great and wonderful fortitude of this Jew in his diet and continent way of living, as those that please may learn more about him from Clearchus's book itself; for I avoid setting down any more than is sufficient for my purpose. Now Clearchus said this by way of digression, for his main design was of another nature. But for Hecateus of Abdera, who was both a philosopher and one very useful in an active life, he was contemporary with King Alexander in his youth, and afterwards was with Ptolemy the son of Lagus: he did not write about the Jewish affairs by the by only, but composed an entire book concern. ing the Jews themselves, out of which book I am willing to run over a few things, of which I have been treating, by way of epitome. And, in the first place, I will demonstrate the time when this Hecateus lived; for he mentions the fight that was between Ptolemy and Demetrius about Gaza, which was fought on the eleventh year after the death of Alexander, and on the hundred and seventeenth Olympiad, as Castor says in his history. For when he had set down this Olym piad, he says farther," That on this Olympiad, Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, beat in battle Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, who was named Polior cetes, at Gaza." Now it is agreed by all, that Alexander died on the hundred and four. teenth Olympaid; it is, therefore, evident, that our nation flourished in his time and in the time of Alexander. Again, Hecateus says, to the same purpose, as follows." Ptolemy got possession of the places in Syria after that battle at Gaza; and many, when they heard of Ptolemy's moderation and humanity, went along with him to Egypt, and were willing to assist him in his affairs: one of which," Hecateus says, was Hezekiah,* the high priest of the Jews; a man of about sixty-six years of age, and in great dignity among his own people. He was a very sensible man, and could speak very movingly, and was very skilful in the management of affairs, if any other man ever were so; although, as he says, all the priests of the Jews took tithes of the products of the earth, and managed public affairs, and were in number not above fifteen hundred at the most." Hecaleus mentions this Hezekiah a second time, and says, that " as he was pos sessed of so great a dignity, and was become familiar with us, so did he take certain of those that were with him, and explained to them all the circumstances of their people; for he had all their habitations and polity down in writing." Moreover, Hecateus declares again, "what regard we have for our laws, and that we resolve to endure any thing rather than transgress them, because we think it right for us to do so." Whereupon he adds, that “although they are in

This Hezekiah, who is here called a high priest, is not named in Josephus's catalogue; the rea! high priest at that time being rather Onias, as Archbishop Usher supposes. However, Josephus often uses the word high priest in the plural number, as living many at the same time. See the note on Antie B. xx. ch. viii. sect. &

*

a bad reputation among their neighbours, and among all those that come to them, and have been often treated injuriously by the kings and governors of Persia, yet can they not be dissuaded from acting but what they think best; but thai when they are stripped on this account, and have torments inflicted upon them, and they are brought to the most terrible kinds of death, they meet them after an extraordinary manner, beyond all other people, and will not renounce the religion of their forefathers." Hecateus also produces demonstrations not a few of this their resolute tenaciousness of their laws, when he speaks thus :-" Alexander was once at Babylon, and had an intention to rebuild the temple of Belus that was fallen to decay, and, in order thereto, he commanded all his soldiers in general to bring earth thither; but the Jews, and they only, would not comply with that command; nay, they underwent stripes and great losses of what they had on this account, till the king forgave them, and permitted them to live in quiet." He adds farther, that "when the Macedonians came to them into that country, and demolished the [old] temples and the altars, they assisted them in demolish. ing them all, but [for not assisting them in rebuilding them] they either underwent losses, or sometimes obtained forgiveness." He adds farther, that "these men deserve to be admired on that account." He also speaks of the mighty populousness of our nation, and says, that "the Persians formerly carried away many ten thousands of our people to Babylon, as also, that not a few ten thousands were removed, after Alexander's death, into Egypt and Phoenicia, by reason of the sedition that was arisen in Syria." The same person takes notice in his history, how large the country is which we inhabit, as well as of its excellent character, and says, that "the land in which the Jews inhabit contains three millions of arouræ,† and is generally of a most excellent and most fruitful soil; nor is Judea itself of lesser dimensions." The same man describes our city Je. rusalem also itself as of a most excellent structure, and very large, and inhabited from the most ancient times. He also discourses of the multitude of men in it, and of the construction of our temple, after the following manner.—“ There are many strong places and villages," says he," in the country of Judea, but one strong city there is, about fifty furlongs in circumference, which is inhabited by a hundred and twenty thousand men, or thereabout:† they call it Jerusalem There is about the middle of the city a wall of stone, whose length is five hundred feet, and breadth a hundred cubits, with double cloisters; wherein there is a square altar, not made of hewn stone, but composed of white stones gathered ogether, having each side twenty cubits long, and its altitude ten cubits. Hard by it is a large edifice, wherein there is an altar and a candlestick, both of gold, and in weight two talents; upon these there is a light that is never extin guished either by night or by day. There is no image, nor any thing, nor any donations therein; nothing at all is there planted, neither grove, nor any thing

So I read the text with Havercamp, though the place be difficult.

+ This manner of arouræ or Egyptian acres, 3,000,000, each aroura containing a square of 100 Egyptian cubits, (being about three quarters of an English acre, and just twice the area of the court of the Jewish tabernacle,) as contained in the country of Judea, will be about one third of the entire nuniber of arouræ in the whole land of Judea, supposing it 160 measured miles long, and 70 such miles broad; which estimation for the fruitful parts of it, as, perhaps, here in Hecateus, is not, therefore, very wide from the truth. The 50 furlongs in compass for the city Jerusalem presently, are not very wide from the truth also, as Josephus himself describes it, who, Of the War, B. v. ch. iv. sect. 3, makes its wall 33 furlongs, besides the suburbs and gardens; nay, he says, B. v. ch. xii. sect. 2, that Titus's wall about it at some small distance after the gardens and suburbs were destroyed, was not less than 34 furlongs. Nor, perhaps, were its constant inhabitants in the days of Hecateus many more than these 120 000, because room was always to be left for vastly greater numbers which came up at the three great festivals; to say nothing of the probable increase in their number between the days of Hecateus and Josephus, which was at least 300 years. But see a more authentic account of some of these measures in my description of the Jewish temples. However, we are not to expect that such heathens as Cherilus, or Hecateus, or the rest that are cited by Josephus and Eusebius, could avoid making many mistakes in the Jewish history, while yet they strongly confirm the same history in the general, and are most valu able attestations to those more authentic accounts we have in the Scriptures and Josephus cancer ing them.

of that sort. The priests abide therein both nights and days, performing certain purifications, and drinking not the least drop of wine while they are in the tem. ple." Moreover, he attests that we Jews went as auxiliaries along with king Alexander, and after him with his successors. I will add farther, what he says he learned, when he was himself with the same army, concerning the actions of a man that was a Jew. His words are these "As I was my self going to the Red Sea, there followed us a man whose name was Mosollam : he was one of the Jewish horsemen who conducted us: he was a person of great courage, of a strong body, and by all allowed to be the most skilful archer that was either among the Greeks or Barbarians. Now this man, as people were in great num. bers passing along the road, and a certain augur was observing an augury by a bird, and requiring them all to stand still, inquired what they staid for? Here upon the augur showed him the bird from whence he took his augury, and told him, that if the bird staid where he was, they ought all to stand still, but that if he got up and fled onward, they must go forward; but that if he flew backward, they must retire again. Mosollam made no reply, but drew his bow, and shot at the bird, and hit him, and killed him; and as the augur and some others were very angry, and wished imprecations upon him, he answered them thus :-" Why are you so mad as to take this most unhappy bird into your hands? for how can this bird give us any true information concerning our march who could not foresee how to save himself? for had he been able to foreknow what was future, he would not have come to this place, but would have been afraid lest Mosollam the Jew should shoot at him and kill him." But of Hecateus's testimonies we have said enough; for as to such as desire to know more of them, they may easily obtain them from his book itself. However, I shall not think it too much for me to name Agatharchides, as having made mention of us Jews, though in way of derision at our simplicity, as he supposes it to be; for when he was discoursing of the affairs of Stratonice, "how she came out of Macedonia into Syria, and left her husband Demetrius, while yet Seleucus would not marry her as she expected, but, during the time of his raising an army at Babylon, stirred up a sedition about Antioch; and how, after that, the king came back, and upon his taking of Antioch, she fled to Seleucia, and had it in her power to sail away immediately, yet did she comply with a dream which forbade her so to do, and so was caught and put to death." When Agatharchides had premised this story, and had jested upon Stratonice for her superstition, he gives a like example of what was reported concerning us, and writes thus :-"There are a people called Jews, and dwell in a city the strongest of all other cities, which the inhabitants call Jerusalem, and are accustomed to rest on every seventh day;* on which times they make no use of their arms, nor meddle with husbandry, nor take care of any affairs of life, but spread out their hands in their holy places, and pray till the evening. Now it came to pass that when Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, came into this city with his army, that these men, in observing this mad custom of theirs, instead of guarding the city, suffered their country to submit itself to a better lord; and their lawt was openly proved to have commanded a foolish practice. This accident taught all other men but the Jews to disregard such dreams as these were, and not to follow the like idle suggestions delivered as a law, when, in such uncertainty of human reasonings, they are at a loss what they should do." Now this our procedure seems a ridiculous thing to Agatharchides, but will appear to such as consider it without prejudice a great thing, and what deserved a great many encomiums; I mean, when certain men constantly prefer the observation of their laws and their religion towards God before the preservation of themselves and their country.

* A glorious testimony this of the observation of the Sabbath by the Jews. See Antiq. B. xvi. ch.

. sect. 4; ch. vi. sect. 2; the Life, sect. 54, and War, B. iv. ch. ix. sect. 12.

Not their law, but the superstitious interpretation of their leaders, which neither the Maccabees nor our blessed Saviour did ever approve of.

VOL. 11.

23. Now that some writers have omitted to mention our nation, not because they knew nothing of us, but because they envied us, or for some other unjusti. fiable reasons, I think I can demonstrate by particular instances: for Hierony. mus, who wrote the history of [Alexander's] successors, lived at the same time with Hecateus, and was a friend of King Antigonus, and president of Syria. Now it is plain, that Hecateus wrote an entire book concerning us, while Hierony. mus never mentions us in his history, although he was bred up very near to the places where we live: thus different from one another are the inclinations of men; while the one thought we deserved to be carefully remembered, as some ill disposed passion blinded the other's mind so entirely, that he could not discern the truth. And now certainly the foregoing records of the Egyptians, and Chaldeans, and Phoenicians, together with so many of the Greek writers, will be sufficient for the demonstration of our antiquity. Moreover, besides those forementioned, Theophilus, and Theodotus, and Mnaseas, and Aristophanes, and Hermogenes, Euhemerus also, and Conon, and Zopyrion, and, perhaps, many others (for I have not lighted upon all the Greek books,) have made dis. tinct mention of us. It is true, many of the men before mentioned have made great mistakes about the true accounts of our nation in the earliest times, because they had not perused our sacred books; yet have they all of them afford. ed their testimony to our antiquity, concerning which I am now treating. How. ever, Demetrius Phalereus and the elder Philo, with Eupolemus, have not greatly missed the truth about our affairs; whose lesser mistakes ought, therefore, to be forgiven them; for it was not in their power to understand our writings with the utmost accuracy.

21. One particular there is still remaining behind, of what I at first proposed to speak to, and that is to demonstrate, that those calumnies and reproaches which some have thrown upon our nation are lies, and to make use of those writers' own testimonies against themselves; and that, in general, this self-contradiction hath happened to many other authors, by reason of their ill will to some people, I conclude is not unknown to such as have read histories with suf. ficient care; for some of them have endeavoured to disgrace the nobility of cer tain nations, and of some of the most glorious cities, and have cast reproaches upon certain forms of government. Thus hath Theopompus abused the city of Athens, Polycrates that of Lacedæmon, as hath he that hath wrote the Tripoli. ticus (for he is not Theopompus as is supposed by some) done by the city of Thebes. Timeus also hath greatly abused the foregoing people and others also: and this ill treatment they use chiefly when they have a contest with men of the greatest reputation: some out of envy and malice, and others, as supposing that, by this foolish talking of theirs, they may be thought worthy of being remem. bered themselves; and, indeed, they do by no means fail of their hopes with regard to the foolish part of mankind, but men of sober judgment still condemn them of great malignity.

25. Now the Egyptians were the first that cast reproaches upon us; in order to please which nation some others undertook to pervert the truth, while they would neither own that our forefathers came into Egypt from another country, as the fact was, nor give a true account of our departure thence. And, indeed, the Egyptians took many occasions to hate us and envy us: in the first place, be cause our ancestors* had had the dominion over their country; and when they were delivered from them, and gone to their own country again, they lived there in prosperity: in the next place, the difference of our religion from theirs hath occasioned great enmity between us, while our way of divine worship did as much exceed that which their laws appointed, as does the nature of God exceed that of brute beasts; for so far they all agree through the whole country, to esteers such animals as gods, although they differ one from another in the peculiar wor * The Phoenician shepherds, whom Josephus mistook for the Israelites. See the note on sect. 16